Business

"The last thing you want to see at an event are police and panicked PR girls." Photo by Sean William.

Apparently Restoration Hardware, um, RH, had more people stuffed into the restored Museum of Natural History than it was permitted for, so fire inspectors started shutting the thing down shortly after 8 p.m. - barring people from going in, even if they had already been in but stepped outside.

At 7:47, Priya Sisodia tweeted:

At the Restoration Hardware opening, so freaking crowded can barely move. At least the wine's good. On the lookout for celebs and athletes!

Kinvey puts together the map. And it's just startups actually within Boston city limits - none of that frou-frou Kendall Square or 495 stuff.

Associated Press reports Hess is selling off all its gas stations. That's bad news for Hess-mad West Roxbury, which has the city's highest per-capita number of Hess stations.

The owners of Felt, closed for the past 18 months due to licensing, tax and business issues, today asked the Boston Licensing Board to reinstate its liquor license.

Attorney Mark Zuroff, who represents the last known group of owners, said the sole reason would be so that they could sell the license to a new operator who wants to convert the Washington Street space into a fancy supper club called the Adams House - an homage to a restaurant that once operated there. "None of the prior management or ownership will be involved," he pledged. "We're not trying to resurrect the current operation."

Residents, neighboring businesses, Suffolk University and Boston Police, however, were having none of it, saying the neighborhood is changing, that they have enjoyed 18 months of violence- and noise-free weekend nights, rather than being awakened at 2 a.m. by hundreds of people exiting the club and that they did not buy Zuroff's promises of a troublefree new restaurant.

Walgreen is suing the maker of the Purple Pill, alleging the company paid off generic drug makers not to offer cheaper versions of it.

The suit against AstraZeneca, which has offices in Westborough and Waltham, was filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston.

Windsor Button on Temple Place started its going-out-of-business sale today after 76 years in business. Arturo Gossage braved the drifts yesterday and visited the shop.

Copyright Arturo Gossage. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Best business closing sign of the storm.

The Downtown Boston Business Improvement District tweets that Windsor Button, 35 Temple Pl., starts a going-out-of-business sale on Feb. 11. It first opened in 1936.

David Lavitman, a Milton driver who signed up for Uber, has sued the car service, claiming its illegally keeping half drivers' tips.

Lavitman filed his suit in state court in December, but Uber had it moved to federal court this month.

Lavitman alleges the company collected a 20% gratuity fee on all rides, but only gave half that to drivers.

Uber tells the Boston Business Journal drivers keep all the gratuities, but that it does take a percentage of the meter fee plus $1 per trip.

• Lavitman's complaint

The Boston Business Journal reports - with a bonus slideshow of photos from the actual Jordan Marsh in its pre-Macy's heyday.

Kathy C tweets:

Better sell Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins too.

Lorem Ipsum seeks your help.

Earlier:
Seems to be the thing to do for Cambridge businesses.

If you saw one of those Building 19 circulars advertising the sale of some salvaged Swarovski crystal, would you assume Swarovski was going downmarket?

A federal appeals court ruled today that the maker of expensive crystal is going to have to do a better job proving such an ad would confuse consumers if it wants to win a lawsuit seeking to bar Building 19 from mentioning its name at all as it tries to unload $500,000 worth of Swarovski goods salvaged from a warehouse hit by a tornado.

Foodler now offers hard-partying Allston residents condoms for delivery right to their door. Also: beer-pong supplies, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., daily.

H/t Riptor.

The Boston Business Journal reports Avis Budget will pay $500 million for the locally based car-sharing service.The move will let Zipcar users rent Budget cars on the weekends.

Some local Zipcar fans were not pleased this morning. Lalunkee tweets:

I expect that this will ruin a wonderful thing. Crap.

Nathan Spencer adds:

I saw what Avis did to Budget and I worry this will be a reversal of what Zipcar was founded upon. Also, not for nothing, this is another example of a good Boston-based company moving up and out.

Although the companies say Zipcar will keep its local headquarters - and will still move them from Cambridge to South Boston, Spencer is not convinced that means much:

Oh, right, just like Gillette. It's not Avis' fault. Boston needs to find ways to keep successful companies here.

The Times marvels: Biotech Players Lead a Boom in Cambridge.

Xconomy seeks answers in the help wanteds for Amazon's local expansion.

The Dorchester Reporter alerts us that Meetinghouse Bank plans to put its second ever branch in one of the spaces at 4238 Washington St. - where Domino's failed to ease the square's critical pizza shortage.

Meet HappySpeedy.com, which delivers convenience-store stuff to you up to 2 a.m., if you live in the student-heavy sections of Boston, or Brookline, Newton Center, Newtonville or, of course, 02138 and 02139.

Via Boston Tweet.

The Harvest Co-Op on Washington Street, just south of the T station, is scheduled to open tomorrow at noon.

@onetoughnerd So your plan is now to compete w/dead garment workers in Bangladesh? Otherwise, RtW is pointless.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) December 10, 2012

Are you ready for The Street Chestnut Hill?

BostInno reports on Karmaloop's experiment in online clothes peddling today (Karmaloop, you may recall, is run by the guy who thinks Tom Menino is too stodgy to be mayor).

Not everybody was amused. Maria Mercedes Martinez writes:

Its so lame and something some old pervy dude would come up with, not a cool young equal rights minded man of this century.

Daisy Razor adds:

"half-naked chicks sell shit" doesn't count as boundary pushing OR satire. It's the oldest trick in the book.

The Boston Business Journal has the latest on the DeNormandie Wharf project.

Rapper and City Life/La Vida Urbana activist Antonio "Twice Thou" Ennis takes on BoA:

Since 2009, instead of negotiating a loan modification with principal reduction to allow Ennis to stay in his home, Bank of America (servicer) has been trying to foreclose although he can afford his home at the current real value. After receiving several dissatisfying loan modifications, one of which increased his monthly payment by $1,000 he turned to his passion and profession of producing hip-hop music to shame the banks for their predatory business practices.

A federal appeals court ruled today Starbucks owes Massachusetts baristas more than $14 million for tips that were shared with supervisors between 2005 and 2011, because state law bars managers from dipping into the tip jar.

Starbucks tried to pour cold water on a class-action suit on behalf of more than 11,000 former and current baristas by arguing that "shift supervisors" weren't really managers because they mostly did the same work as baristas and so were entitled to the perk of sharing in pooled tips collected from customers.

But in a scalding decision, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston told Starbucks that the Massachusetts tip law is about as explicit as can be that managers are not allowed to share in tips and that shift supervisors are, indeed, managers: